Homepage

The Catalyst Innovation Center is a business incubator geared towards bioscience, engineering and technology start-ups. Now affiliated with the Arkansas State University Innovation System as the site location for The Lab, Catalyst is located within the A-State Arkansas Biosciences Institute.

Featuring executive office suites and conference space, state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, and business services to new and growing science and innovation based ventures, we offer the foundation to allow start-up businesses to grow and prosper.

Catayst is located inside the Arkansas BioSciences Institute facility on the Arkansas State University campus in Jonesboro. It marks another exciting step in efforts to foster innovation-based economic development, with an ultimate goal of creating opportunities that will develop and retain the most talented among our region’s students and workforce.

The Catalyst Innovation Center is a program of the ASU Research & Development Institute (RDI). Its founding and continued success is thanks to a collaborative effort of ASU RDI, the Northeast Arkansas Business Community, Arkansas State University, the Arkansas BioSciences Institute, the Delta Center for Economic Development, U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration. It was made possible by funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Arkansas State University Biosciences Institute

Catalyst is located at the A-State Biosciences Institute. Access to specialized equipment rooms and core equipment of the facility is available for an additional fee. Select services and equipment include:

Companies

Companies at Catalyst

The Catalyst Innovation Center is a business incubator geared towards bioscience, engineering and technology start-ups. Catalyst provides the foundation for start-up businesses to grow and prosper. Featuring executive offices, state-of-the art wet-lab facilities, and valuable business services as part of our incubator program, Catalyst can house start-ups from their initial formation and provide the groundwork for these to thrive.

Company Profile

BioStrategies LC is a biotech company focused on the development of innovative protein-based therapeutics for human health and veterinary applications. The company has received multiple grant awards from NIH and other federal and state agencies and received the prestigious SBA Tibbett’s Award in 2012 for innovative research excellence in the national Small Business Innovative Research Program (SBIR). This award recognized the company’s pioneering research to develop novel enzyme replacement therapeutic (ERT) technology, which employs biotechnology approaches for production of the human enzyme in a safe, low cost plant-based production system for the rare genetic condition, Gaucher’s Disease. BioStrategies continues to bring novel technologies to therapeutics for rare disease with the development of new lectin-based protein delivery systems. The company’s lectin-ERT fusion proteins are designed to increase ERT drug effectiveness by enhancing delivery to cells and tissues of the body that are not treated adequately by existing ERT drugs and drug delivery mechanisms.

COMPANY PROFILE

Infinite Enzymes is a biotech company with a novel genetic technology for producing low-cost, recombinant enzymes in corn seed for converting cellulosic biomass into biobased products. It employs plant biotechnology for producing useful, sustainable enzymes for industrial applications based around the concept of corn grain as a bio-factory

Infinite Enzymes, LLC has fully developed a licensed patented system using maize as a plant biofactory to inexpensively produce industrial enzymes. Using plants for production of industrial enzymes, capitalizes on tractable and highly scalable agricultural production systems. The plant system offers a new revenue stream to farmers and enables numerous industries because of the potential for low cost and large volumes possible without this capital expenditure.

COMPANY PROFILE

First-time SBIR winner GeneCoMe Biotech received a $99,999 grant from the USDA Animal Production and Protection SBIR program to develop a plant-based method for treating poultry diseases such as coccidiosis. GeneCoMe has developed a rapid and cost-effective method to produce chicken cytokines in tobacco plants. The long-term goal is to apply their cytokine as an alternative to antibiotics and antimicrobials to prevent diseases that affect the poultry industry.